Torbay MPs slam dental crisis and demand action

Torbay MPs Steve Darling and Caroline Voaden and their Liberal Democrat compatriots in Devon have called on the county’s Integrated Care Board to ‘up their game’ in providing NHS dental care, citing holes in the dental contract, issues in recruitment and retention, and problems with accessing care.

They joined forces in the House of Commons to slam the previous government in their handling of the county’s NHS dental contract, and called for the ICB to push for improvements in dental care.

According to the most recent NHS Statistics, only 50.8 per cent of children covered by the Devon ICB have seen their dentist in the period 2022-2023 (the last period for which there is data), and only 39.5 per cent of adults have seen their dentist in the last two years up to that date.

Torbay MP Steve Darling said: “The dental desert in Torbay is raised time and time again by residents. It is shameful that less than 10 per cent of the £377,000 budget to recruit new dentists to Devon has been spent, securing only two out of the possible 22 placements.

“This has been described by Devon ICB themselves as a relative success compared to the national picture, clearly demonstrating that the previous Conservative government’s ‘Golden Hello’ scheme has failed tremendously. The new government needs to urgently deploy a fit for purpose dental contract that will encourage recruitment and invest in our primary care providers in Devon.”

The MPs also pushed for the government to deliver a comprehensive reform to the dental contract, and rescue package for UK dentistry. As part of this package, Lib Dem MPs also urged them to reconsider the National Insurance status of NHS providers, including dentists.

Caroline Voaden, MP for South Devon, added: “The government carried out no impact assessment on how their changes to National Insurance would hit our dentists, but my constituents in South Devon will certainly have to bear that impact. The government needs to urgently reassess our call for health care providers to be exempted from their painful jobs tax, and commit to turning around this shameful situation in NHS dentistry.”

Echoing a recent report from the cross-party Public Accounts Committee, Devon’s Lib Dem MPs called on central government to change the  NHS dental contract and for the ICB to produce a realistic timetable for when a new dental contract could be put in place, including full consultation with the public and stakeholders.